RomanPunks is a retrofuturistic, cyberpunk derivative world-building project inspired by fine art, history and the cryptopunk movement.
A total of 1,000 RomanPunk characters have been frozen in time and minted as Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) on the Ethereum, WAX, Polygon and Algorand blockchains.
RomanPunk characters are comprised of commoners and famous individuals based on Roman history, art history and pop culture.
The basis for RomanPunk lore and backstories is exhaustively researched by history/sci-fi buff and co-founder, Punktavian.
All images are drawn by hand by woman artist and co-founder, Cleopunktra, without the aid of AI or generative tools.
RomanPunks came into existence through early minting on OpenSea, promoting on Twitter and building a Discord community through giveaways and engagement. The idea of a cyberpunk-derivative ‘RomanPunk’ theme was in our heads for years, but it was the success of the Cryptopunks that became the catalyst for project conception and launch.
After a hard working first 60 days spent networking and attracting new collectors to RomanPunks, our community had begun to flourish and sales increased. We began to offer our collectors an opportunity to battle their NFTs in a tournament bracket powered by dice rolls.
Encouraged by the tight knit community and the carbon-neutral blockchain with lightning fast and low cost transactions, we launched 'romanpunksio' collection on WAX Blockchain as the first step to expand the backstories of our RomanPunk characters and the baseline for future development of a card game.
RomanPunks integrated with Chainlink Labs to utilize VRF (Verified Randomness Function) to host a giveaway raffle for our holders. We developed a smart contract on Ethereum which guarantees true random number selection on chain and can be used for a wide range of functions that require random selection.
After much anticipation in the community, we released our first WAX NFT card 'pack' through the Neftyblocks platform, which sold out in less than a week.
We launched our Twitch channel and begun building an audience by offering numerous giveaways of WAX NFTs from our collection, as well as giving participants a chance to win RomanPunk ETH NFT airdrops for taking top spot at the end of the 'season'.
As firm believers in a metaverse future and land owners in The Sandbox, we undertook to build the RomanPunk Colosseum on 1x1 land and entered our experience "Gladiator Bloodsport" into a GameJam contest. We will continue to build the Colosseum into a PVP arena and social hub once The Sandbox offers creators the ability to do so.
Thanks to the user friendly tools offered by NeftyBlocks, we launched a comprehensive blending system on WAX, allowing our collectors to blend the common NFTs they earn in our Discord RPG up into Legendary famous NFTs through the use of blending 'coins' that can also be earned on the Discord as reward for helping to promote the RomanPunks project.
We launched the VX collection on Polygon. Each owner of an ETH NFT gets their voxel equivalent airdropped to them, and these NFTs can be redeemed for official NFTs on The Sandbox Marketplace once available.
All 1,000 original, unique 1:1 RomanPunk characters hand drawn by Cleopunktra and minted on OpenSea.
The RomanPunk WAX NFT Trading Card Fighter Pack Series II consists of 3 NFTs randomly selected from over 236 characters.
Upcoming plans for RomanPunks include:
Below is a comprehensive and searchable directory of all 1,000 RomanPunk Characters.
Born in 242 AD in Mediolanum, Alexa Servilianus quickly rose through the ranks of Emperor Aurelian’s legion in Germany after stepping into a dimension portal in Lake Como and returning equipped and skilled with the lightsaber.
Born 41 AD in Rome, Aericus is a senator masquerading as an actor to be closer to his forbidden love, a pleb Philetus, star of Virgil’s Aeneid.
Born 181 AD in Adrianople, Groucho is a stand-up comedian and estranged brother of Emperor Maximinus who travels interdimensionally to lampoon political leaders in the public forum, only to disappear through a portal before he can be arrested.
Born 125 AD in Ostia, Axilius was a galley slave whose ship sunk into an interdimensional whirlpool portal during a fierce storm. Transported to a 1980s AD parallel universe, he reigns as the charismatic lead singer of the thrash metal band, Pontifex Maximus. His music, a defiant cry against the elite, echoes through space time, making him an interdimensional icon of rebellion.
Born 297 BC in Teotihuacan, Xoco, priestess at the Pyramid of the Sun, mistakenly opened and fell into an interdimensional portal while conducting a human sacrifice where she became enslaved as a gladiator in a 2nd century AD Mexico that is part of the Roman Empire.
Born in 105 AD in Rome, Damianus Sanga is second in command of the Lost Cohort, which disappeared on campaign in Caledonia. Sanga and his comrades were whisked to an alternate dimension where they were equipped with hi-tech weapons and armor by sympathetic local tribes seeking new allies.
Born in 142 AD in Salona, Decima is an acrobatic martial artist who joined the legion at a young age disguised as a boy, and was soon spotted by a dimension-traveling priest who sent her to the 28th century AD to avoid discovery.
Born 11 AD in Emerita Augusta, Iccona is a spoiled socialite who was gifted with a transdimensional vision device for her 16th birthday by her ultra-rich industrialist father. When she’s not hosting glamourous interdimensional rave parties on daddy’s metaverse yacht, Iccona competes in pan-galactic vertical scrolling shooter tournaments.
Backstory:
Born in 92 AD in Petra, Omar saw the annexation of the Nabataean kingdom by the Emperor Trajan as a teenager. Rather than live under the Roman yoke, Omar fled into the desert and was believed to have traveled through a dimensional portal in Egypt.
Born in 157 AD in Singidunum to a patrician family with an abusive father, Bruttia fled to Asia as a teenager to where she learned the way of the samurai. On her return home, she was captured and forced to fight as a gladiator in Pula.
Born 1969 AD in Lugdunum, Vivienne is a 42x Olympic shooting gold medalist and undefeated Universal Laser Tag League (ULTL) champion. A household name across galaxies and dimensions, she is known for her ironclad mettle and heart of stainless steel.
Born 205 BC in Drepana, Siro was a shepherd who chased one of his flock into a temple on Mount Eryx and was sucked into an interdimensional portal to a distant time and place where he was pressed into the service of a galactic alien army.
Born 1989 AD in Damascus, Raya is a rebellious teenage genius who fled the chaotic and oppressive 21st century AD by reciting ancient incantations at the Temple of Bel in Palmyra, which opened an interdimensional portal to the 3rd century AD. Now she is living her dream as a style consultant for the Empress Zenobia.
Born in 111 BC in Amaseia, Strata was a concubine of Mithridates the Great who, upon capture by the Romans, refused to prostitute herself, instead opting to fight as a gladiator where she caught the eye of a dimension hopping patrician who provided her with advanced equipment and tactical training.
Born 249 BC in Drepana, Marius is a former centurion who became a dimension hopping vigilante after being enslaved and crucified by alien cyborgs, then forced to watch while his entire village was beheaded. Rescued by Archimedes, he now searches time and space for the extraterrestrial brigands responsible for the atrocity.
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© 2023 RomanPunks NFT
romanpunks@protonmail.ch
Registered in Ontario, Canada
